This painting has a story book illustration quality to it.  The charming cottage was inspired by an actual structure near where I live, and it seemed to call out to me to draw it.  The rest of the composition grew from there, as if the story was being revealed to me as I drew.  It reflects a bit of my own lifestyle, no doubt.  But painting is a visual journal of the artist, especially this artist.

I love the opportunity to use vibrant colors, fantasy and stylization in a piece, all of which are integrated in this painting.

In contemplating the beginning of making a new painting and facing the clean, blank watercolor paper, even if I have completed 100’s of paintings before, I still have a sense of resistance.  What if I ruin this new piece, ruin the fresh paper by making a huge mess, after hours of investing time into the piece.  What if it’s the worst painting I’ve ever done? 

I’ve painted many examples that I’m proud of and that have given me confidence to keep honing my skills.

But that’s just it really, the process of honing my skills never stops, no matter how long I’ve been painting.  So what if I make a mistake, so what if I invest hours into a painting and realize it’s not working?  This is also part of honing the skills drill, and there’s always something to be learned from the experience.

Today I opened two new watercolor pad blocks of paper.  One is hot pressed, smooth and sleek; while the other is cold pressed, with a slight texture, both are extremely pristine, clean and white.

Since painting on hot pressed paper is new to me, it seemed that it would definitely invite disaster if I didn’t experiment first.

How liberating- taking one sheet of 14” x 20” paper from each of the new pads, and devoting large swathes of water, than color to crisscross the clean paper.  I had no expectations, and applied large broad strokes of the brush that was loaded with ultramarine blue, than yellow ochre and last a brilliant red.  The hot pressed smooth surface almost resisted grabbing the color, as it sat on the surface of the paper and sucked the color away from the edges of the brushstroke and into the dense center of the pool of paint.  On the other sheet, the cold pressed was more predictable and familiar to me; it was like an old friend, witnessing the colors nestle into the dimpled recesses of the pristine page.  I felt a sense of comfort in this exercise, giving myself permission with what could be called deliberate mistakes, lifting a burden of expectations to get it right the first time.

I remember a time when it would seem like wasting paper, or paints or my precious time to experiment and play at making mistakes.  Maybe that was a day when the fear of the unknown really seemed real to me, and I put more pressure on myself to get it right, which of course meant that my work was more  monitored and guarded.

So now I give myself permission to be unlabored and fresh, to infuse lightness of approach to the painting.  If this means making some mistakes and starting over, so what?  Painting is like unwrapping a gift, and seeing what’s inside, not judging or expecting, but being open to the process and the surprises that wait to be discovered!

It was with delight that a collector asked me to paint an image similar to one I had painted in the past.  This collector had seen the original image in my published book "Zoe Meets Confucius".

With this request it gave me the opportunity to revisit and make some changes from the first one that I had painted which is titled:

"With a few flowers in my garden, half a dozen pictures and some books, I live without envy". (A quote by Lope de Vega).

It is fun to compare the two and to see how the changes have evolved.

What do you see when you look at a pear?

What do you see when you look at a pear?

The pear for this sketch came from Argentina. Before I drew it, I held it in my hands, closed my eyes and sat quietly running my finger tips around the shape; feeling the smooth skin, the curves that dipped and bulged, the woody stem at the narrow end of the pear.

Than with eyes still closed, I held the pear to my heart and transferred the image that I experienced by touching the pear, into an image that I "saw" in my heart. I saw within the pear the seed that I knew to be in its center, and the fleshy fruit surrounding the seed. Than in my imagination, I took the pear back to the tree in Argentina where it had grown. A vast pear grove spread out before me on a sunny hill in the foothills of some mountains in Argentina. There was a breeze rustling the leaves of the tree as the pickers were gathering the fruit from the trees and placing them gently into baskets. Than going back in time I saw the pear as a blossom on the tree before it grew from its seed into a fruit. Going back further still I reversed time as the tree transformed in stages from a mature tree into a young sapling, and finally into a seed that was planted into a pot of soil by a pear farmer, whose vision it was to grow an orchard of pear trees brimming with fruit for the picking.

After 5 minutes of this visualization, I was ready to pick up my pencil and sketch my pear in front of me. The first thing that I drew were the seeds that I couldn't see, and from there I "fleshed" out the pear shape, the shadow and the negative space around it. For 10 minutes I sketched this traveler from Argentina which had transformed through many processes and been touched by many hands before it came to my hands. It's odd shape among the pile of pears in the grocery store caught my eye. Before I saw it, there was already a pear in my mind waiting to be discovered-so now it has come to fruition.

What do you see when you look at a pear?

Belonging to an artist support group has many advantages and perks.

For 5 years I have had the opportunity of being a member of a Women Artists Support group.  We have gone through many changes and transitions over the years but there is an ongoing thread of support that rings true for the members.

Our current membership is 14 women ranging in age from 40+ to 70+.  There are many multi-talented women whose directions often include more than one discipline or medium.  There are also different levels of full time to part time artists included.

The list of the mediums and talents include the following:

Acrylics

Bookmaking

Calligraphy

Clay sculpture

Dance

Glass jewelry

Gouache

Illumination

Knitting

Linoleum block printing

Mixed media

Murals

Recycled tires and license plates

Resin jewelry

Oils

Pastels

Pen and ink

Photography

Poetry

Sewing

Silk batik

Watercolor

Wood: carving, furniture, musical instruments

Writing

We are building a community of trust, caring, mutual respect, and support through our bi-monthly meetings.  We learn from each other and share resources.  Often we'll meet at one of the members' homes where we may receive an informal talk or workshop from the hostess.

We encourage and offer advice when needed.  Our meetings are fun, informative and oriented towards progress in our work.

Personally it has been a platform of growth and inspiration which I feel has given me an opportunity to expand and to offer support for all the members.  I am grateful for the friendships and the bonding that we have established in this group.

Business Management For Artists

Today's Post  is by Lori Woodward, Regular contributing writer for FineArtViews. She also writes "The Artist's Life" blog on American Artists' Forum. Lori is a member of The Putney Painters, an invitational group that paints under the direction of Richard Schmid and Nancy Guzik.  Find out how you can be a guest author. 

I'm a female professional artist who constantly struggles to run my business efficiently. Lately, I've been applying a project management tool called Scrum to organize my work activities and it's simplified my daily process into digestible morsels. Scrum - a rugby term, where the players pass the ball back and forth on their way to the goal, is now the name of a methodology geared for software programming teams. I won't go into the history of it and how it's used for software development, we'll skip all that -- getting right to how I am using it to organize my art and business tasks.

My husband is a software developer; when I asked him for help in managing my art business, he suggested that I use Scrum techniques to help me meet my goals more efficiently. What I discovered -- Scrum helps me simplify and focus my activities so I don't feel overwhelmed.[1]

Scrum is designed for a team of players - one or two project leaders and a work crew of 5-9 developers. The problem with applying these techniques to my art business is that I'm the work crew, the project manager, and the project organizer. Additionally, I am the shipping department, the advertising department, the writer, bookkeeper, and a part time housewife. It  doesn't take a genius to see that I need to work 24 hours a day or hire help.[2]

If it takes a village to raise a kid, it certainly takes a team to run an art business. [3] Personally, I don't think I'll ever reach my goals if I try to fill all of the roles listed above - and mind you, I'm trying to do all of them perfectly.

So What is Scrum and How Can It Help Artists?

Scrum divides interests and work roles among several individuals. There are two types of players: Chicken and Pigs. The creators of Scrum came up with this analogy based on an old joke about a chicken and pig who decided to open a restaurant called, "Ham and Eggs". Obviously, the pig had a serious commitment to the project, while the chicken was only marginally "involved".

I, as the artist who must create my body of work and succeed or fail on it's quality, am the pig. If the paintings fail to sell, I am ultimately responsible. My art dealers are chickens. They provide the eggs, (space/venue)  but they don't live or die on whether my art sells. My framer is a chicken - well almost anyone but me is a chicken. They are marginally interested in my success,  but I sink or swim by my own efforts.

Scrum is a simple way to organize tasks into short, 1-4 week sessions (called sprints). I'll explain more about them in later posts. If you can get someone to be an accountability partner - who doesn't have any control over you but is a living person to report to, that will help you stay on track. He or she just listens (and is a chicken)... you file  your task list with that person on a regular schedule.

Each day, you write down the results to three questions:

1. What did I do (or achieve) today?

2. What am I planning to do tomorrow?

3. What, if anything impeded my progress today?

Your accountability partner's job is to help you dissolve impediments... period... if you can't find someone who is willing to take on that supportive role, then you'll have to resolve these roadblocks yourself.

As my artwork continues to improve and I gain recognition, I plan to hire as many people to help me with the business side of my work as I can afford. Then when I have time to fully focus on my artwork, I'll finally have the time to fully develop as an artist. Hiring others will also create jobs and so improve the economy!

More to come! Next, I'll show you how to design your next "Sprint"... usually that means an art project, painting, or series of paintings.

[1]I think the reason why I am attracted to spending so much time on social networks is because I'm escaping the fact that I can't do it all by myself, so I spend hours in denial online. This does nothing to get the tasks done that will make my art successful, but it acts like a drug to mask the feeling of being overwhelmed (at least it does for a few hours).

[2] We artists rarely hire the people we need to run a smooth efficient business because it costs money. What business does not cost money to run? I've noticed that male artists either have spouses to handle the biz end of their art sales, or else have no problem hiring the best framers, bookkeepers, and agents/gallery owners to handle their sales. 

[3] I think two smart and loving parents can raise children... I don't buy into the village thing. In Africa, many of the men have many wives and a ton of children. I am using this analogy because I really do think that we artists need to cut down on the work we have to do to get our product to market.

Building Confidence With Action

Today's Post  is by Lori Woodward, Regular contributing writer for FineArtViews. She is also a contributing editor for American Artist's Watercolor and Workshop magazines and she writes "The Artist's Life" blog on American Artists' Forum. Lori is a member of The Putney Painters, an invitational group that paints under the direction of Richard Schmid and Nancy Guzik.  Find out how you can be a guest author. 

Watercolors with an

Attitude

Instructor: Joann Wells Greenbaum

Beginning watercolor techniques with an attitude of fun. No experience needed. Course includes guided examples of delightful designs and composition.

Dates: 6 Mondays, April 13-May 18

Time:   3:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Location: Cedarwood Center for the Arts

4 Fowler Street

Pt. Jervis, N.Y.

Information & registration call Evelyn Kish

845-856-2307

I'd like to welcome you to view my new fan page on facebook, if you haven't yet.   Here you will see new works and some recent favorites.  Please feel free to click "become a fan" if you'd like to know about updates of new paintings.
Thank you for checking it out.
Wishing you all a smile with the hope of spring around the corner.

Irakly Shanidze:

"Virtually anyone who did not cut English class in high school can easily recognize a poem by Longfellow or Shakespeare, even if it is one he has never read before. The phenomenon of individual style, so profoundly felt in poetry, is also present in other types of creative self-expression.  While there can exist, in addition to individual style, a style that is characteristic of a certain period in history or geographic location, we can easily distinguish the paintings of Rubens or Rembrandt from others which bear the same characteristic features of all Renaissance painters. The individual style of an artist, as unique as handwriting, allows us to recognize the artist’s work as a combination of techniques employed and visual elements used: perspective, composition, palette, tonality, brush stroke and even the choice of subjects. This phenomenon feels completely natural to the viewer, just as it does not surprise us that a writer or a poet uses characteristic vocabulary, idiomatic expressions and rhyming patterns in his work."

I chose one of my paintings that was inspired by Kiyomasu, the 17th century Japanese artist who perfected the technique of "gourd legs"(the exaggeration of the leg muscles) and "earthworm lines" (the curvilinear outline of the figure) to convey a sense of the power and violent action of a type of flamboyant performance of Kabuki.

What is an artist's style and how does an artist determine a style? These are timeless questions that I will attempt to respond to, along with the help of a few experts, in this month's blog entries.

Steven Heller and Marshall Arisman, authors of “Inside the Business of Illustration”

define Individual Style as “a by-product of our limitations, interests, and abilities. Everyone has a style that is an outgrowth of continuous work. The connections between your drawing, painting, and image making get stronger with time. That recognizable link in your work is your style.”

Picasso said that “style is what you call what other people do.”

The practice of making art and images continues to connect me with my visual language that is defined as style.  Though I have seen changes in subject in my work, I am also seeing an underlying feeling that comes through as "me".